Game #1038: Cool Boarders 2001(Playstation 2)

  One last hill.

 You might have thought that we were done, but we were not, for you see, Cool Boarders 2001 also released on the PS2. It has much in common with its older brother, but it's not a direct port, even if it might seem like so at first glance.

 Just like the PS1 iteration, you get either Career or Quick Race, but this time around they didn't even bother with the character creator. It was so shameful that it's for the best. On the other hand, this game has less events than the Ps1 version, what we get here is: 3 Checkpoint/Gate tracks, 2 board parks, 2 Half Pipes, 2 Big Jumps, 2 CBX and only 5 Pro Challenges. Trickmaster was axed completely.

 This is, by far, the best feeling Cool Boarders game out there, the controls are much tighter and the movement feels much smoother than anything that came before. While it has less overall tracks, they have all sorts of verticality as well as objects to trick from and to. The visual overhaul also makes it much more fun to play through, and we've finally got licensed music, even if it's only a few tracks, but they fit the game SO well. The one thing the PS1 version does better is... the punching animation. In this game it looks like a very feeble push.

 And... yeah, that's it. It's an even smaller package than the Ps1 version, but I feel like this is the most fun Cool Boarders out there. It probably can't measure up to SSX, but considering my very limited knowledge of snowboarding games... I quite liked it!

 7.0